# Moral Distress Paper
Jethro Jones
## Assignment Directions
- _What you agree with_
- _What you disagree with/have questions about_
- _Your "Big Take Aways" from the article_
## Assignment
This is a response to the paper Moral distress among school leaders: An Alberta, Canada study with global implications from the [_International Journal of Leadership in Education_](https://doi.org/10.1080/13603124.2021.1926545), by Stelmach, Smith, and O’Connor.
It's unfortunate that education is so tied to elections and parties. It would be great if we could agree on some things that won't change because of what political party is in charge.
> In an Alberta study in which 29 principals logged their work activities for a week, it was found that they spent twice as much time on administrative tasks (8.2 hours) than instructional leadership (4.1 hours) (Stelmach et al., 2024, p. 837).
This data point is interesting. If they are spending 12.3 hours on Instructional leadership and administrative tasks, what else are they spending the remaining 63 hours per week on? The study [referenced](https://legacy.teachers.ab.ca/SiteCollectionDocuments/ATA/Publications/Research/PD-86-28%20A%20Week%20in%20the%20Life%20of%20Alberta%20School%20Leaders.pdf) claims that principals spend 65 hours per week, but even their own chart shows 58.5 hours instead. For a little more information, here's the chart from the study mentioned: ![[CleanShot 2024-09-24 at
[email protected]]]
Stelmach et al adopt nursing as a parallel to educators. "Parallels between the nursing profession and the teaching profession justified our using it as a conceptual framework" (Stelmach et al., 2024, p. 839). I agree with the relationship between nurses and educators, because of the reasons listed here, but also because of another thing they don't mention, which is the way that the public (mostly reflected by the media and social media) went from praising these front line workers one week to vilifying them the next week. Public perception turns on a dime on them regularly. In addition, personal perceptions based on the interaction one has with an individual nurse can vary wildly, just as they can with a teacher. One area they don't overlap is in the area of interactions. Almost all interactions with a teacher are one teacher to many students. Almost all interactions with a nurse are one nurse to one patient. It's rare that they are interacting with multiple patients at once.
Finally, there is a point I disagree with. Stelmach et al state that many school leaders are unwilling to do the right thing:
> Sources of constraint were identified in relation to three key trends and issues: (a) the increasing complexity of classroom composition; (b) decline in working relationships with parents; and (c) an increase in directives compelling school leaders to comply with district expectations (p. 841)
But I think there is a bigger issue. The biggest reason in my experience is that principals think if they disagree they'll be disciplined. This is not always the case, but it sometimes is. Principals think they will lose their jobs if they go against the district in any manner. That's also not true all the time, but it sometimes is. In this regard, there is some truth to these assumptions, but it is not all true. But it is true enough that it has a chilling effect on principals' actions.